Various types of devices exist for allowing users to play or otherwise consume digital works. The devices can include both (a) dedicated devices such as portable MP3 players, Compact Disk (CD) players, Digital Video Disk (DVD) players, and handheld electronic book devices; and (b) general-purpose computing devices such as PCs and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) configured to play or output digital works to users. Both classes of devices are referred to herein generally as “player devices” or “players,” and the act of listening to, viewing, or otherwise consuming a work on such a device is referred to herein as “playing” the work.
One limitation with existing player devices is that they generally do not provide or support an intelligent mechanism for identifying, based on the works the user has played or stored on a user device, other works that may be of interest to the user. Although some web sites provide services for recommending music, video, and book titles to users, these recommendations generally do not reflect the works actually played or downloaded by the user, and typically do not take in to consideration what a user is currently playing. Further, many recommendation services are incapable of making accurate recommendations until the user has explicitly created a preferences profile, or has purchased a sufficient number of products to permit an accurate profile to be created. Thus, if a user fails to create a detailed profile, or if the user purchases or downloads works from many different sources, the recommendations may be unreliable.